Originally Posted by
FlexibleResponse
An excellent question. I think the answer might be:
1. Statistics (luck of the draw)
2. Safety margins (eg aircraft and ATC systems)
3. CRM (such as intervention by other crew members)
The absolute and key element in every flight that you perform depends ultimately upon the abilities of the final decision maker which is the Flight Commander or Captain. For the most part, flights proceed according to plan and SOP. However, ocassionally special decisions need to be made by the Commander to keep everthing on an even keel. Quite often these Command decisions pass virtually unnoticed by the other crew members as they make their own decisions under the watchful and approving eye of the Captain.
The policy of CX is to ensure that they promote to Command only those whom they think will not have to rely on statisitics and outside help to achieve safe and efficient outcome on a regular basis.
Are you for real dude?? Your attitude of "Captain knows best" was dropped by every respectable airline with half a decent CRM culture. Boeing/Airbus built the airplane and they stuck two seats in it. That means two pilots are required. The only reason we have a Captain is because someone does need to be higher rank. Otherwise, you would get two big-headed egos arguing over the stupidest little detail and the flight would never leave the gate.
When I did my first type rating (at a previous airline with a really good training department) one of the first things my sim instructor told me was "the only reason you are in that seat is because of seniority, not because of your ability". He told me this to make sure that it didn't go to my head that I was now in the left seat, and it worked. Just because you are sitting in the left seat does not mean you aren't gonna make any mistakes. You can't go on thinking that your ****t don't stink.
A good manager knows his resources and utilizes them appropriately. REAL major airlines have been teaching this for years, and here at CX we are still teaching that the Commander should take over flying as soon as something goes wrong. As a Captain during any sort of emergency, the last task I want to pile onto my already full plate is flying the airplane. That would be my first call out, "your airplane". Now I can concentrate on managing all my resources to reach a successful outcome.
Speaking of statistics, they are definetely on our side. You can't compare CX to airlines like AA, BA, or even any other major airline in the states. American Airlines has 4500 departures a day. That is what Cathay flies in a month. Every month at Cathay is a Day in the life of AA. One year at CX is less than 2 weeks at AA. So if AA has an accident once every 5 years, that is the equivalent of CX having an accident every 60 years. You get the point.
Flexible, you need to wake up and evolve with the industry or move over and let someone younger take your place. Sometimes I think that is the reason retirement age has been 60 for so long. You remind me of the guys who criticized GPS when it came out and said they would stick with their "trusty VORs and NDBs".
And I agree with the analogy, way too many airbags at Cathay. This airline needs to seriously look at its operations and apply the KISS concept to it. We are overloading our pilots with so much non-essential crap that they are missing the big stuff. Like ILS not aligned with the runway, or AP not engaged. Maybe if you didn't have to make so many worthless call outs on a missed approach someone in the cockpit would hear the AP disconnect horn. These incidents were warning signs, the fact that we had 3 of them without loosing any planes or lives means we are running out of close calls.
